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Tuesday night’s BBC Panorama programme highlighted serious abuse and appalling standards of care at Winterbourne View, a private hospital for people with learning disabilities.
Following an internal review, we recognise that there were indications of problems at this hospital which should have led to us taking action sooner. We apologise to those who have been let down by our failure to act more swiftly to address the appalling treatment that people at this hospital were subjected to.
In response to the serious issues uncovered by Panorama, CQC has:
- carried out three unannounced inspection visits of the hospital and taken steps to ensure the hospital will not admit any new patients. We are working with the primary care trusts and councils who pay for the care of people at the hospital to secure the best outcomes for those people.
- started an immediate review of all services run by this provider.
- written to Care Services Minister Paul Burstow MP proposing that we launch a programme of risk-based and random unannounced inspections of a sample of the 150 hospitals providing care for people with learning disabilities. The Minister supports this proposal.
- launched a detailed internal review of our actions in relation to Winterbourne View.
- spoken to the former member of the hospital staff, apologised for not contacting him earlier and offered to discuss his concerns.